Creating the best you can, with what you have, based on what you know.

Monday, December 8, 2008

Sausage Rice on the Side

Okay, the photo is not very appetizing. Talk about a dish that needs some parsley, or a sprinkling of paprika, but as we all know sometimes the best things come in ugly packages.

I got an e mail over the weekend from Melissa who is doing a dinner party and more than half of her guests will be vegetarian. She wanted a side dish recipe that would include meat both for her and the other carnivores in the crowd.

This is just a simple variation of the New Orleans Dirty Rice that is so popular.

If the sausage is in a casing cut the casing away and add to the water. Put on a glove, this part is messy. Mix the sausage into the water, like soup, you want the sausage to fall into little bits and not clump up. Once you have a mushy mess stir in the rice, onion and garlic and put on the stove to boil. When it comes to a big boil turn down to a low simmer, put the pot on the rice and leave alone for 20 minutes. Turn off the heat and leave alone for 5, then get a fork and fluff and serve.

When I get in one of those moods I have been known to make a pot and top with some stewed okra and tomatoes and eat a big ole bowl. The New Orleans of my childhood may not exist anymore but with a bowl of this mess, you can believe the South will rise again.